Fasil Seboka (b. 2000, Ethiopia) is a contemporary painter based in Addis Ababa, creating semi-abstract figurative works that blend personal narrative with gestural expression. Trained at Addis Ababa University’s Alle School of Fine Arts and Design (BFA, 2025), his oil paintings explore memory, identity, and human connection through dynamic brushwork and layered compositions.
As a contemporary figurative painter, I investigate the psychological weight of modern existence through the lens of public transportation. These transient spaces, crowded yet isolating, intimate yet anonymous, serve as powerful metaphors for the human condition. My expressive brushwork and dynamic compositions capture the tension between movement and inertia, connection and alienation, reflecting the restless emotional undercurrents of contemporary life.
Drawing from personal experience, my work interrogates the paradox of stagnation within perpetual motion. I observe individuals suspended between the desire for change and the constraints of circumstance, be it economic pressure, familial duty, or existential fear. By immersing myself in these shared narratives, I translate collective vulnerability into textured, gestural paintings. The push of bodies in confined spaces, the glare of artificial light, and the fatigue of ceaseless transit become visceral manifestations of societal anxiety.
Through this exploration, I invite viewers to confront the dissonance of our accelerated world: How do we claim agency when structures overwhelm us? Where do we find stillness when the pace never slackens? My practice seeks not just to depict this tension, but to create a space for catharsis and recognition within it.